While studying kyouiku kanji(right now I am going through 3rd grade kanji) I noticed that those are only 1000 from all the jouyou kanji (over 2000). Could someone tell me what are the other 1000 kanji called and where could I find a list of them sorted by grades (like kyouiku kanji - from 1 - 6 grade) and , if possible, with kun/on readings? It would really help a lot.

What you're looking for is the complete list of jouyou kanji. The jouyou kanji encompass most of the most commonly used kanji, but there are also kanji outside of the jouyou kanji which are used fairly frequently.

soldieroH wrote:Thank you but it isn't the list I was looking for.
I was thinking of more like a list with those kanji that are thaught after 6th grade excluding the kyouiku kanji that I am learning now.

So why can't you use that list, and ignore anything with a grade level other than "S"?

Or, you could download Jim Breen's "kanjidic" file (from the WWWJDIC website), and throw out all the entries except those that have the string " G8 " present (which is used to indicate Jōyō kanji that are not also in the Kyōiku kanji list).

You won't find these kanji "ordered by grade", since there is no particular order in which they are required to be taught (as I understand it). At least, I've certainly never seen those characters split up into separate levels, other than arbitrary ones.

There is a free program named zkanji which can be downloaded at http://zkanji.sourceforge.net/ . It only runs under Windows. It has many useful tools for learning. It is very easy in zkanji to generate lists of kanji satisfying various criteria; in this case, you want to generate a list of the jouyou kanji which are ranked as 8th grade kanji. This is done by going into the kanji list window and typing "8" into the text box after the checkbox labeled "Joyou grade." This will give you a list of 1130 kanji. You can order these in various ways, such as the number of strokes, the radical, or frequency of use. If you double-click on any kanji in this list, you get a window with detailed information about the kanji, including an animation of how it is written. The list can be saved as a study list. You can generate a study list of words containing kanji in the list. And so on.

Using the list inside the program actually gives you a lot more study possibilities than any simple text list would, but you can also export lists to text files if you want to.

soldieroH wrote:Thank you but it isn't the list I was looking for.
I was thinking of more like a list with those kanji that are thaught after 6th grade excluding the kyouiku kanji that I am learning now.

So why can't you use that list, and ignore anything with a grade level other than "S"?

Because going throught kanji by grade means that I will not encounter kanji that have hard to remember/understand meanings too fast. So far it seems that those kind of kanji are taught in higher grades.

micahcowan wrote:You won't find these kanji "ordered by grade", since there is no particular order in which they are required to be taught (as I understand it). At least, I've certainly never seen those characters split up into separate levels, other than arbitrary ones.

I found on wikipedia list of kyouiku kanji that are from grades 1 to 6 so I thought that there may be lists for other grades but I couldn't find them. That's why I thought someone here may have found other lists.

soldieroH wrote:Because going throught kanji by grade means that I will not encounter kanji that have hard to remember/understand meanings too fast.

Think again. There are some kanji in lower grades that are quite uncommon compared to some in higher grades. Of course, the kanji do tend to get more complex the more you go, but it's only a general tendency. For example, 猫 is a "junior high" kanji (i.e. above grade 6) even though it's very much a Japanese 101 word -- neko -- and its form is not overly complicated. Meanwhile, kanji such as 麦 (barley/wheat/oats) are listed as grade 2. It may not be all that complicated to write, but it's not such a basic word (to us foreigners, anyway) and it's not a fundamental building block like 糸, so you get limited use out of it.

soldieroH wrote:Because going throught kanji by grade means that I will not encounter kanji that have hard to remember/understand meanings too fast.

Think again. There are some kanji in lower grades that are quite uncommon compared to some in higher grades. Of course, the kanji do tend to get more complex the more you go, but it's only a general tendency. For example, 猫 is a "junior high" kanji (i.e. above grade 6) even though it's very much a Japanese 101 word -- neko -- and its form is not overly complicated. Meanwhile, kanji such as 麦 (barley/wheat/oats) are listed as grade 2. It may not be all that complicated to write, but it's not such a basic word (to us foreigners, anyway) and it's not a fundamental building block like 糸, so you get limited use out of it.

Learning kanji this way also seems to be more sistematic than just going blindly through a huge list. But you have a point there. So far some kanji seem to not be very useful now but if I have to learn them (or at least have some idea what could they mean) then I will try to do it.
By the way, are there any other widely used methods for learning kanji?

If you want a systematic method, then there's Heisig. It's been a very controversial method around these parts, but most of the Old Guard doesn't post much anymore and by now I think most of the people who post are in favor of or at least neutral towards it. I use it myself. I think by far the most sensible way of using it is with the website kanji.koohii.com.

I suppose I would count myself as neutral now although the book is not good on its own; the information at forum.koohii.com will help you make use of it if you choose to go that route (which you certainly don't have to).

furrykef wrote:If you want a systematic method, then there's Heisig. It's been a very controversial method around these parts, but most of the Old Guard doesn't post much anymore and by now I think most of the people who post are in favor of or at least neutral towards it. I use it myself. I think by far the most sensible way of using it is with the website kanji.koohii.com.

Wow, it looks like this method could be used toghether with mine to memorize kanji better. Thanks!

Not sure if I've posted this on here before... (I posted it over on NNB awhile back)

This is the method that I plan on using, which is basically what's being discussed here... but is written in out in detail for my own sake a bit since I like having an exact step by step plan to follow when I first dig into something.

I've been pretty busy working on this site and TJP etc... but I wanted to give a simplified version of the RTK lesson plan that Dustin gave me. (Thanks Dustin!)

Dustin wrote:
1) Use the book ( Heisig's "Remembering The Kanji" vol.1 ) and the website ( http://kanji.koohii.com/study ) at same time for each frame.

2) Enter your kanji frame # from the book in the input at the top left of the webpage. Pick one of the top stories or the book one, spend a moment to make sure you remember the components and chosen mnemonic.

3) Write it out at least once, perhaps a couple times in your notebook.

4) Move to next frame.

repeat 1 - 4

5) After x many, do your quiz for the day.

6) Write out all reviews before flipping the card when doing your reviews to ensure you really know it and help drill it into your memory.

Done. (And remember to do your reviews every day!)

I'll probably add some pictures to it also, just to make it even easier to follow. I'm a visual person, so I know I'd like it more that way.

Also, Mattias pointed out to me that there's a free supplement available from the publishers that adds 157 more kanji beyond the latest 5th edition of RTK.

In December 2010 the Japanese Ministry approved the addition of 196 characters to the "general-use" kanji list. 39 of these are already included in Remembering the Kanji I. The remaining 157 have been prepared as a special Supplement that may be downloaded here (1 December 2010 update). They will all be integrated into the Sixth Edition currently in preparation. For a sample of the contents, click here.